Championship Productions Blog

Conditioning Tips and Core Workouts Perfect for the Preseason

With the 2013 lacrosse season getting ramped up, it’s now a perfect time for players to focus on conditioning, strength training, and getting into game shape. Follow along with Syracuse University Strength & Conditioning Olympic Sports Director Veronica Dyer as she leads you through a variety of core exercises and conditioning tips that are particularly effective for lacrosse athletes.

Conditioning Tips

Lacrosse is a dynamic sport and you need to have a good base of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. At the beginning of a season, it’s important for athletes to establish a general base of fitness. At Syracuse, players are required to do some basic testing when they arrive on campus, including a mile run and three 300-yard shuttles within a certain amount of time.

Meanwhile at Syracuse, Dyer makes sure that early season training is geared toward conditioning so the players can focus on other strength and conditioning areas for the rest of the year. The training will begin general and then get more complex as the year goes on.

For instance, early training sessions may consist of longer runs and interval training. As the team gets more conditioned, the training staff will lower the time goals and implement shorter intervals and shorter rest time — all while increasing the speed to accomplish each one.

Closer to the beginning of the regular season, the staff typically knows that players are in game shape so it’s not necessary to tax them too often. While some conditioning is still important, the bulk of work is now geared toward the games.  In season, it’s usually left up to the players to work on their conditioning.

Abs & Core Exercises

Core development is imperative in lacrosse. In these exercises, we will incorporate bars to simulate lacrosse sticks. Players start out with their backs on the floor, knees bent, and feet flat on the ground. The sticks are held out over the stomach/chest area.

1) Overhead Sit-up

Start with the bar straight up over your head. Crunch up and do a full sit-up, extend at the top, and then come back down. Keep your movements nice and controlled and keep your arms up. Make sure that your core area is engaged during each rep. Go for 10-15 reps.

2) Flutter Kick and Press

Start with your back on the floor and legs straight out. Get your arms up over the chest. While raising the bar up and down, make a flutter kick motion with the legs. Keep those legs straight and be sure that the motion is coming from the hips. Every time you press the bar, that’s one rep.

3) Jackknife

Get one leg straight up in air. Meanwhile, hold the other leg straight out and just an inch or two off the ground. Your arms should be straight up. The goal here is to reach up to your top toe. Keep that leg straight. After 10-15 reps, switch legs.

4) Jillknife

Similar to the Jackknife, but this time the bar should be underneath the top leg. Reach for the bottom toe. Your other leg is just off the ground like before.

5) Superman

Put your chest on the ground and hold your arms and legs straight out. Contract lifting legs and arms off the ground with the bar. Get a nice and controlled motion going up and down. Look to hit between 15 and 20 reps and don’t forget about your breathing techniques.

6) Extended Double Crunch

Get on your back to start. Crunch up, bring your knees to the chest, and bring the bar over top of the legs before extending back out. Keep your arms straight the entire time. Also, don’t let your feet or arms touch the ground at any time.

The previous clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “Agility Training and Conditioning for Women’s Lacrosse” with Veronica Dyer. To find more videos offering lacrosse training and conditioning drills, click here.